“With knitting, this means that it is theoretically possible for a pattern to be creative enough and independent enough from the article’s useful function to qualify for protection. However, in most cases, such a protection is unlikely and would only extend to the creative elements, not to the techniques that make it.”

“In short, while there hasn’t been any precedent and most publishers don’t even both to register the copyright in their patterns, meaning a lawsuit is more or less impossible, no one wants to be the test case if they can avoid it.”

Basically, I probably don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Especially not as a small blog holder with a fairly new reputation.

I don’t do outreach or ask for links like some bloggers do, so I don’t really know any other crochet writers. Just friends who crochet at home.

I have no angry, powerful internet crochet mob backup. No online army to worry them into backing down.

Although I do have some seriously riled friends, they don’t have any sway in the imaginary world of online crafts.

What Shall I Do Next?

This particular pattern was a real labor of love and very personal to me. I worked on several revisions before the final one, and I am not exaggerating to say that dozens of hours of work went into making it.

I feel very angry, but also upset. To have been left feeling impotent, unable to defend the pattern. To defend myself.

I give all of my patterns away for free, but rather than link to it and credit me, someone has seen fit to recreate my work and pass it off as their own.

I’m not going to share a link to the stolen work, because I don’t want to give traffic to their site. Nor am I going to tell you at this point which toy pattern was taken. I think I need to decide what I am going to do first.

If you have ever dealt with craftwork copyright theft, I would love to hear from you about how you handled it.

I am off now to do a lot more research, and will let you guys know how to story ends!

Lucy Kate, x

Comments

What a awful thing to discover! It beggars belief that someone should do this but there are some real nasty people about and as you’ve discovered the law isn’t a lot of good when you come up against someone who doesn’t respect others. Good luck with deciding what to do and don’t allow scum like that to influence how you live your life.

First off, I would like to thank you for giving your patterns away for all of us on a budget to use. I think that is incredibly generous. Your work is wonderful. I hope you find a way to get at least a bit of satisfaction in your quest. Good Luck! I would really like to hear about the outcome. Most of us out here in “happy hooker” land appreciate your efforts to put a stop to this. Please let us know the site at some point so we can avoid it.

I am so sorry this happened to you! I rely heavily on free crochet patterns, and I greatly appreciate what you do and share. When I make items to sell, I give a slip of paper with them which credits the original designer. Gosh, in English in school, when we are very young, we learn about plagiarism- do these people not get that it extends to crochet patterns and many other things,too? I guess not.
Maybe they feel that the vagaries in copyright law will protect them? I hope their conscience awakens to the seriousness of what they have done. I will be watching to see what you decide.

Thanks for your message. It’s lovely of you to credit the designer in your sold items.
I think you’re right, the law regarding patterns is vague and therefore people try to see what they can get away with 🙁 x

I’m so sorry to be reading this…I admire you and other designers because that has to take work, trial and error and time…I’m not a designer just a crocheter and buyer of patterns although free ones are good too, is this why some designers don’t sell patterns only the finished product? How do you deal with this theft?

Thanks for your message, Angela.
I do think this could be one of the reasons some people only sell their finished products, yes.
I am currently looking into the best way to deal with it, and will let you all know what this is if I succeed! 🙂 x

Lucy – it’s appalling! Have you considered crowd funding to raise the money to pursue a test case. I think you would get a lot of support. It might be worth speaking to an intellectual property rights lawyer to get an idea of cost first. If you are unsuccessful in raising the right amount of Money you could perhaps donate it to charitable causes linked to crafting. I would definitely donate – a similar thing happened to us with our miniature dolls house items. We managed to stop them copying (for now).

Hi Kim, It’s an interesting idea, though I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that 🙂
I’m so sorry to hear that you have dealt with a similar situation. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you manage to stop them? x

HI THERE! NICE TO MEET YOU!

I'm Lucy Kate: a writer, crochet lover and blogger. Living happily in a pile of yarn with my husband, daughter & numerous pets! My big passions are crafts, animals, fitness & teaching historical fencing. You can contact me in the comments section under my posts, or on the Lucy Kate Crochet Facebook page.

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